


In The Future.

by The9thDoctor



Series: Jack's Story. [4]
Category: Torchwood
Genre: Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-04
Updated: 2011-11-04
Packaged: 2017-10-25 16:32:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/272396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The9thDoctor/pseuds/The9thDoctor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack will never be able to forget.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In The Future.

**Author's Note:**

> Fourth and final part of the series. Written during season 2. Warnings for overblown angst...

Maybe, in the future, when everything should be old but somehow still manages to surprise him every time, Jack meets a man. 

 

He is, of course, young and beautiful. Jack can see echoes of his past lovers in him him easily. 

Krishnan's eyes, Elisabeth's way of covering her mouth when she laughs, a couple of Robin's little gestures... This is not unusual. Jack thinks has been around for long enough to be prepared. 

 

But Jack never rolled over to see any of them staring down at him with their hands on their hips and a look of adoring exasperation on their faces. 

 

It's like all the breath is forced from his body as he looks up at Oliver, and all he can see is Ianto. 

 

Oliver, beautiful, young, alive Oliver, opens his mouth to say something. He's going to complain smilingly about Jack dripping water across the bathroom, or leaving his coat draped over the back of a chair, or keeping the vid-screen on pause overnight again, but Jack can only see Ianto. 

 

Oliver's hands flatten on his hips, fingers spread across the dark fabric of his trousers, and it's all so painful Jack thinks he might scream. He bites down on the urge somehow – Oliver doesn't deserve it. He hasn't done anything wrong. He's been funny, and kind, and gentle and was almost a challenge to get into bed... Almost perfect in every way except one. 

 

He's not Ianto. He never will be. 

 

No-one will ever be Ianto again. 

 

Jack can't stay. He throws off the covers and pulls on his trousers, only half aware of the litany of 'It's not you, it's me.' he is giving Oliver, knowing he can never tell him what he deserves to know – that Jack is leaving him because of the memory of a man who has been dead for almost a thousand years. 

 

Jack all but throws himself out of Oliver's apartment and down the skywalk, half aware of the screaming and shouting from behind him. Jack doesn't need to listen. He knows he's a bastard. 

 

Jack doesn't stop running until he's three planetary systems away on a pleasant enough ex-mining colony with a spacecraft that he would have described as 'borrowed' a few millennia ago. Now, it's just 'stolen' and Jack can't bring himself to care. 

 

Jack spends a few days hacking into the planet's mainframes and sets himself up with an apartment and enough credits in his bank account that he can live comfortably. It's quiet, and boring and for a while, Jack enjoys being normal. 

 

He tries it all again, finds a beautiful creature to share his bed with through a new found friend of a new found friend. He gets sent on a blind date for the first time in decades, and when he arrives at the restaurant, Jack thinks he'll be safe this time. She's pretty – pale purple and five foot high and her tentacles do the most amazing things to him when they use her anti-grav shower together. For a time he feels safe from the past – he takes on a job fixing atmospheric regulators in a garage by the main spaceport, they go out for meals and drinks together and he meets her friends (though not her parents). She starts talking about buying a bigger habitation pod together, and maybe a better class style of cruiser. They have bills to pay and jobs to go to and nights spent holding each other close. Jack feels almost-happy with his new-found almost-domestic. Hell, it IS domestic... Right up until she smiles at him and tells him she's found this new drink in the off-world market on Platform Ten. She tells him it's delicious, and that she brought him a cup back. It's called 'Coffee'. 

 

Jack is out the door before the mug hits the floor of their kitchen unit. 

 

Jack never learnt from any of his mistakes. He's doomed to repeat them, he thinks. There are men and women and things in between and every single one of them ends up reminding him of Ianto. 

 

He tries to throw himself into war again, there's always a galactic conflict going on, and the participants don't usually mind what species their soldiers are. Jack remembers the rush of battle, the adrenaline pumping thrill of being shot at. It's twisted, he knows, but he needs to forget. His men (Or women.) are all young and principled and Jack wants to laugh in their faces. He finds a few that are lonely enough to share his bunk and is, for a time, content, even though he's not happy. It ends when the long-limbed warrior from Ephraxis he was supposed to be training called him 'Sir' in bed. The warrior wakes up alone and Jack goes AWOL the very next day. 

 

Jack decides to take a holiday. He used to work the cruise ships back in his con-man days, and he wonders if he still has the old touch. He spends a few years travelling idly through the galaxy, charming little old ladies out of their diamond necklaces and selling non-existent timeshares to men on holiday without their wives. He sees a few planets he's never visited before, and makes a lot of money, and then he's relaxing in a bar on a galaxy cruiser, trying his very best to persuade a red-haired woman out of her savings when she smiles and asks if Jack is asking her out on a date. Jack stammers an apology the woman doesn't believe and leaves almost a year's takings behind in his cabin when he goes missing on the very next planetfall. 

 

The pleasure planet is covered with beaches and spas and clubs and brothels. Jack throws himself into it with abandon, not even trying to settle down. He sleeps somewhere different each night – there is no shortage of anyone here looking for a quick and easy fuck. Jack barely speaks to them, barely looks at them, just falls to his knees on command. It's easy. He finds a man in a seedy nightclub who wants him willing and eager and buys him a drink. Jack lets him take him home. His bed is covered with dark blankets and the walls are covered in clocks. The man tells him of his passion for antique timepieces and shows him the pride of his collection. Jack grips the smooth stopwatch tightly and cries. 

 

Everywhere, everywhen Jack landed there was something. People who ate grapes or raised their eyebrows or wore ties. People who look at him from under their eyelashes and grin... 

 

He was quite obviously going mad. 

 

The dirty, dark downtown bar in one of the worst parts of one of the worst spaceports in the quadrant was perfect. Jack could go quietly insane in a corner for as long as he had the forged credits to keep the supply of alcohol coming. The serving drones were slow and occasionally bought him the wrong thing, but there was nothing here to remind him of anything. 

 

He didn't look up as someone sat opposite him. Jack knew that if he did, and they had blue eyes or a sly, slow smile, he would crack beyond repair. 

 

Long moments passed. Jack kept drinking. Nobody said anything. 

 

A blue and white striped mug slid into his view. It was full of coffee. 

 

“You should probably sober up.” said a voice with an accent that had died out thousands of years and hundreds of light-years ago.

 

Jack looks up, blinking. Ianto smiles back at him and the dark bar is replaced by the familiar old surroundings of his office. 

 

Ianto levers himself onto Jack's desk and runs a soothing hand through Jack's hair. “You looked like you were deep in thought there.” he says, hand coming to rest at the back of Jack's neck. 

 

Jack tries to smile, but it doesn't work. “I'm never going to let you go, Ianto.” he mumbles. “Never.” 

 

“You're going to have to one day, Jack.” Ianto replies, biting his lower lip.

 

Jack tugs him forward for a kiss. “Not even then.” he whispers against Ianto's mouth. “Not even then... I promise.” 

  



End file.
